These are just some of the issues a major Youth Mental Health Conference will focus on at in Nottingham’s Jubilee Conference Centre on 25 May. 75% of mental health problems in young people start before the age of 25 with the peak time of onset 14 years old.

The one-day conference, organised by the Institute of Mental Health, will bring together a wide spectrum of health and social care professionals and present the latest research, share best practice examples and reflect on the real-life experiences of young people. With primary care practitioners and schools often the first point of contact when young people reach out for professional help, it will consider how to best manage some of the challenging issues faced by both young people and professionals.

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‘Youth’, a period of developmental, cognitive and emotional changes, is often characterised by increased academic and peer pressure; bullying, stress about entering University and leaving the safety of home.

The themes for the conference will be:

Suicide prevention

Early detection and management of mental health problems

The interface between primary and secondary care

The role of technology in promoting youth mental health and well-being

Mara Michail, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute, explains why this is such a vital conference,

“Seventy five per cent of all mental health problems have their onset between the years of 12 and 25. One in ten young people will experience a mental health problem, most commonly depression and anxiety, at some point in their young lives which could have significant physical, psychological and developmental consequences. We know that GPs are often the first point of contact for people in distress and when it comes to mental health problems, young people are more likely to seek professional help from a GP.

“At this conference, we will explore the important role that GPs and other primary care health professionals have in identifying early, assessing and managing mental health problems in young people. We will highlight some of the barriers GPs experience in delivering mental health care to young vulnerable people; and, we will also hear from young people themselves about their experiences from communicating and interacting with GPs.”

Keynote speakers include Dr Maryanne Freer, Speciality Doctor, Medical Educator, & Trainer for Charlie Waller Memorial Trust; Dr Anne Hagell, Research Lead for the Association of Young People’s Health; and, Dick Moore, former Head Teacher and International Advocate for Youth Mental Health.

The conference will be of interest to GPs, practice nurses, service users, researchers, mental health practitioners, psychiatrists, policy-makers, commissioners, and anyone else with an interest in this area.

The Institute of Mental Health was launched in 2006 in Nottingham to help transform understanding and treatment of mental illness and can now be considered as one of the leading mental health institutes in the UK, offering world class expertise and insight. Further information on www.institutemh.org.uk

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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with a “distinct” approach to internationalisation, which rests on those full-scale campuses in China and Malaysia, as well as a large presence in its home city.’ (Times Good University Guide 2016). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and was named University of the Year for Graduate Employment in the 2017 The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. It is ranked in the world’s top 75 by the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, and 8th in the UK for research power according to the Research Excellence Framework 2014. It has been voted the world’s greenest campus for four years running, according to Greenmetrics Ranking of World Universities.